Blog
Holbein at the Tudor Court
We have just enjoyed an amazing visit to the major exhibition of Holbein at the Tudor Court seeing many of his portraits and other works at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London. https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace The exhibition highlights works from Holbein’s time at court in the first half of the 16th century when he rose to become…
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Summer Holiday Cottages near Burford in the Cotswolds
Open on 12th April Our summer holiday cottages near Burford in the Cotswolds can reopen again on the 12th of April. Rest assured this is our business and we will make sure we are ready for you. Those of us in hospitality are so excited to now have an opening date. We also have the…
Read More King John’s Palace Open and Good to Go
We are very excited to say that King John’s Palace is open and Good to Go. The renovation works are complete and we are pleased to say that we will welcome guests from the beginning of September this year. We are officially open and what has been our family home can now be yours for…
Read More Guests back to Cottages and Palace?
Will July bring guests back to our Cottages and hopefully the Palace here in the Cotswolds ? The beautiful month of May has not disappointed those of us who are lucky enough to live here in the Cotswolds. Let us hope that July will be the month when we can welcome our guests back to…
Read More Lockdown on the Farm but life still goes on.
With the world in lockdown, life here at Langley Farm still goes on. The sheep are lambing, the cows are calving but sadly I have no guests to see all this happening. Our two students arrived having self-isolated so were able to come and start work straight away. Our son returned from Uni and spent…
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TB Testing
Today we have had our local Vet out to inject all our cattle with Tuberculin to see if they react or not. It is a whole herd test and at the moment we are TB free so need to complete this every 12 months. The Vet will be back on Friday to “read” the test.…
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SPRING AND COTSWOLDS LAMBING LIVE 2019
Spring is hopefully here in the Cotswolds and lambing live will soon be underway. Having had them all scanned we are not expecting too many due to the very dry summer we had last year. However, this is our Cotswold harvest, we hope the weather will be kind to us and the spring sun will…
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2019 Season at our Cottages in the Cotswolds
The amazing summer of 2018 seems a long time ago now but the 2019 Season is well and truly here so is my first post of this year. We really look forward to welcoming lots of visitors again to enjoy the peace and quiet of King John’s Cottages in the Cotswolds and make the most…
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SPRING COTSWOLDS WELCOME
New Local Suppliers With the 2018 season really getting underway here in the Cotswolds I have been forging links with some great local suppliers. I will be leaving some tasty welcome goodies to surprise my guests with when they get to the Cottages. We are so lucky to have such an array of amazing farmers…
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WHAT TO DO HERE IN THE COTSWOLDS
Much to Look Forward to here in the Cotswolds:- There is so much to look forward to doing here in the Cotswolds during 2018 that I just had to share a few things with you all. Snowdrop season is upon us so spring is definitely on its way. Lambing live will be happening here on…
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COTSWOLD CHRISTMAS FAIRS AND MARKETS
Last week we went to the WellChild Christmas Fair which has been held at Daylesford for a few years now and is only a few miles from my lovely holiday cottages. We had a great evening looking at all the amazing things that we could buy and this inspired me to get on with some Christmas shopping.…
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WEST OXFORDSHIRE BUSINESS AWARDS OR NOT?
At a recent social media workshop with Hilary at Push Start Marketing we had a discussion about whether or not to enter a local business award, the WOBA’s to be precise, but my initial reaction was absolutely not. Why would I burden myself with yet more work when I cannot even find time to keep up…
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AUTUMN IN THE COTSWOLDS
Autumn is well and truly set in at King John’s Barn and across all of the Cotswolds for that matter. Our summer has been productive with the silage made and our straw pile built ready to provide the feed and bedding for all of our cattle who are starting to come home for the winter from their summer grazing at…
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Dog friendly holidays and fresh interiors given thumbs up by guests
Spring Update of Interiors We have now finished the spring revamp in our cotswold accommodation including sofas with lovely subtle covers, cushions and new bed linen. Guests have loved the fresh look which does not detract from the amazing views. We can now concentrate on welcoming you to this haven of peace and tranquility where…
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Bovine TB Free in the Cotswolds
Following our recent Bovine TB test which we had recently here in the Cotswolds when our vet arrived very early and proceded with the test. This involves clipping and taking skin measurements before injecting all our eligible cattle with avian and bovine TB, each animal having to be put up a cattle race and into a…
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ACCOMMODATION INCLUDES DISTILLERY VISIT *
The Cotswolds Distillery Amongst all the great places to visit while staying here in my Cotswolds accommodation we have The Cotswolds Distillery, situated in the village of Stourton which is between Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon. We are offering a free tour and tasting with any booking that is made and confirmed for the rest of this year (subject to…
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Cottages ready for Guests – life goes on in the Cotswolds
When the world around you seems to be going mad we just carry on in our little Cotswold bubble. The cattle and sheep still need feeding and the cows need checking to see if there are any more new born calves. Of course we are aware of what is going on in the real world and…
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10% off for Easter breaks in our Cotswold cottages
As a special Easter treat for you and your family, we are offering a last-minute booking discount of 10% off our current prices for our picturesque converted barns. We are currently taking care of lots of ewes who are expecting to lamb from 1 April, and this will be the start of ‘Lambing Live’…
Read More Lambing Live in the Cotswolds
WIth January nearly over we will be having a visit from our sheep scanner on the 5th of February to scan all our ewes to see how many lambs we will be expecting in April. This is useful so that we can separate the ewes that are having three or more for special care while…
Read More Raining Again Sunny Days Gone
After a lovely bright dry and almost sunny day yesterday it is raining again. My horses will have to come in soon but no doubt will prefer to be in a warm sheltered yard rather than out in a muddy field. Perhaps the seagulls will come back again, although I hope we don’t have that…
Read More Wishing you all a very Happy New Year in the Cotswolds
www:kingjohnscottages.co.uk Lots to do and see in The Cotswolds 2016 saw another busy year in the cottages with lots of happy guests making the most of the Cotswolds, visiting Blenheim Palace, Burford, Adams Farm and of course the Cotswold Wildlife Park which is always a favourite with families. However, we are not just limited to…
Read More Shut Down with TB
Sadly the test came back positive so we are not officially shut down with TB and will have to have another test at the end of January. We had 11 reactors and 8 inconclusives which following reinterpretation of the test 3 more became reactors. Sadly one of these was a cow that was taken for…
Read More TB Testing
We had a very busy day yesterday with a visit from our vet who had to inject all the cattle that we own (except for the very baby calves) to test them for any reaction to Bovine Tuberculosis. He will be back on Friday morning to “read” the test and see if we have any…
Read More New WordPress Website
Trying to get to grips with the new wordpress website, www:kingjohnscottages.co.uk but it is taking some time as I seem to spend less time in the office and more time outside farming and running the business. Hopefully it will get easier with some help from my guru.
Read More Calving Continues in Gloucestershire
Nearly all the cows at the farm near Bourton-on-the-Water have now calved, only three left to go and so far all have managed on their own with no interference or help needed. We thought we would have to help one last night but when we went back to check she had just had a beautiful…
Read More Lucky Guests will see Lambs
Lambing is well under way and my lucky guests will be able to see the new born lambs in the field surrounding the cottages and if they wish they can come down to the farm for some close up experience.
Read More Lambing Live at Langley
Lambing started with a flourish here at Langley, but we have a great team of staff so not too stressed at the moment. The ewes have their lambs out in the fields then they are brought into the shed and put into individual pens before the lambs are rung and numbered. They then go out…
Read More Brown Hare seen again – Nature Diary
We saw the brown hare again this morning whilst driving round the stock but were not quick enough to get a photo as it ran away too quickly. Following on from my Green Tourism Inspection I am going to work harder at the nature diary and have decided to use my blog as the platform…
Read More Straw for this Winter
We have been very busy on the farm, well actually on the estate next door baling straw ready for next winter. This year has been much easier than last as there was so much straw behind the combine that we were able to bale 1000 round bales in just two and a half fields. Last…
Read More Green Tourism Scheme Inspection
The cottages were visited by The Green Tourism Business Scheme inspector recently which was once again very enlightening with regard to just what difference a few small changes can make to our green commitment and consequently the environment we all love and live in. We are certainly going to achieve the Silver Award again but there may…
Read More Christmas Booked but New Year and a few other dates still available
I have now got both cottages booked for the Christmas period which is great, but as yet have not booked either for the New Year which is unusual. We can accommodate up to 8 guests in both cottages and there is a large enough dining table in each cottage for everyone to sit and eat…
Read More Will be getting a new touch screen computer with windows 8 very soon and will be able to upload my farmplan software. Are there any other farmers out there using this system and if so do you find it easy to navigate etc. Have also recently got an EID Reader so hopefully our sheep records…
Read More Bad Weather causes concern
Although lambing is now well under way the very cold bitter weather is causing real concern as we cannot turn out any of the new lambs because they will simply die overnight. We have therefore had to somehow make more room at home in the buildings so that we can at least give them some…
Read More Mumps Confirmed
Had a call this morning from the Doctor to confirm that my eldest daughter did have mumps, even though she had had both vaccinations as a child. Could there have been a dodgy load of vaccine I ask myself?
Read More Computer Trouble
Why do computers all seem to crash when you need them most. My old dinosaur of a desktop doen’t want to switch on and this is where I do all my Farmplan cattle records, movements, etc. Have put a call into Farmplan who are coming out next week to see what other options they can…
Read More Cottages Busy
Another group of friends have just left the cottages, having had a super 30th birthday weekend, so am heading up there to start cleaning ready for the next guests. Hopefully the electrician will appear this week to sort out those few pesky jobs that need doing, fingers crossed.
Read More Sad News
Having got the blog up and running we very sadly had a death in the family early in February, so have not been paying much attention to my social media etc. However, we are hopefully now back on track, the early lambers have nearly all done and we are gearing up for the main flock…
Read More Scanning Ewes this week and possible Mumps
Busy week ahead as always, just starting to rain again and eldest child at home looking like a hamster with suspected mumps (blood results on Wednesday so will know then). All the remaining ewes will be scanned on Thursday so we will have an idea how many baby lambs to expect. Some will be vaccinated at the same…
Read More Here goes the BLOG
With all this recent snow, being unable to ride the horses, having no guests to clean up after I have had no option but to catch up on office work, filing, doing accounts, but much more exciting than that getting my website updated and tweaked by Kaydee and finally have decided to start a blog. So watch this space for all the…
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